The Beginning of a New Journey Begins Thursday for Abilene Christian Basketball

As the clock wound down and Abilene Christian slowly closed in on their Southland Conference Championship win, the scene was ecstatic. Players were jumping up and down on the bench, fans screaming, jumping and waving signs that read things such as “We Want Duke!” and “Zion can’t handle the Southland”. It was the typical scene of a school who had just punched their ticket into the NCAA Tournament. However, this celebration came from more than just excitement after a long season. No, this was excitement after a good long while of waiting.

Back in 2013, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament wasn’t even a reality. For starters, Abilene Christian had never qualified for postseason play since 1999 and secondly, they were moving up from D2 to D1, where the increase in competition was that much more for an already losing team. Sure many of the school’s other athletics programs were standouts at the D2 level, but the basketball program needed a change if they wanted to even compete against the worst teams at the D1 level. So just two years before the major transition to D1, Joe Golding was hired. A former Wildcat, he knew what it was like to have a winning culture at ACU and the athletic administrators wanted him in charge as they began the transition to 2013, when they would finally be a full-fledged division 1 team. From that point on, the program began a steady uphill climb with Golding at the helm, first doubling their conference wins from the 2013 season in 2014. Next, he led them to a seventh place conference finish, once again doubling the record in conference play they’d had the previous year. Finally, in 2018, the Wildcats were near the mountain top, making their first postseason appearance in the CIT, where they fell to Drake in overtime. It is important to note that achievement because of the fact that since they had moved up to D1 just four years prior, they had been ineligible for postseason play for the past three years. At last, 2019 was the year in which this long journey ended, but began a new journey. A journey of a program vying for conference titles and NCAA Tournament wins. However, Golding also needed the help of unselfish players, players who would come and be a part of the transition to the D1 level, but probably wouldn't be on the team when the move paid off. One of these was Christian Albright, who had more than 20 other D1 offers before joining the ACU Basketball program for it’s inaugural season at the D1 level as a freshman. Another was leading scorer Parker Wentz, who continued playing with ACU through their transition to D1, knowing he’d never be on the team when they made the postseason. He joined the team for their final year in D2 before emerging as a star for the next three important seasons. Players like Wentz and Albright paved the way for little-known, but extremely talented recruits such as Jaren Lewis, ACUs all-time leading scorer and Hayden Farquhar, who came from tiny Throckmorton High School and hit two huge three-pointers to close out the Southland Conference Championship win against New Orleans.

This team is full of players like Lewis and Farquhar, who have the talent and skill, but perhaps not enough recognition from big-time schools coming out of high school, or attend Abilene Christian for a number of other reasons. All in all, these Wildcats won’t back down against the Kentucky Wildcats, but bring their all in their first opportunity to show what they can do on a national stage such as the NCAA Tournament. According to Head Coach Joe Golding, “I’m sure they (Kentucky) don’t know where Abilene, Texas, is, and I’m sure they’re not worried about little ol’ Abilene Christian, but we’re going to use this opportunity to give the nation a window into this great university and these players, and we’ll get out on the floor and compete hard for 40 minutes and see what happens.”

Abilene Christian squares off in the first round against Kentucky on Thursday evening at 6:10 ct on CBS. The winner will move on to play the winner of tenth seed Seton Hall and seventh seed Wofford.